Alyssa Raya- Poppy Pu-Yu Chun- Yu Long

Volkswagen Emissions Scandal

After Toyota’s “Sticking Accelerator Pedal“and General Motors”Exploding Ignition Switches“, It was the Volkswagen Group that hit headlines for the bad reasons. Volkswagen allegedly manipulated diesel engines to pass through emission tests. It started off as a research by a group of university scientists to being labeled as one of the worst scandal in the automotive industry.

On September 18 2015, United States Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) issued a notice of violation of the Clean Air Act to the german automakers Volkswagen Group after it was found that Volkswagen had intentionally programmed turbocharged direct injection (TDI) diesel engines to activate certain emissions only during laboratory emissions testing. The programming caused the vehicles’ non-nitrogen oxides (NOx) output to meet US standards during regulatory testing but emit up to 40 times more NOx in real-world driving.

Volkswagen declared that there were 11 million diesel cars around the world equipped with this software and almost 500,000 of them were within United States. Owners of Volkswagen TDI diesel cars were upset, angry, hurt, and betrayed. They’re also fearful of the resale value of their cars.Volkswagen took responsibility of the scandal and had fired the top level management. The company set aside huge chunk from profits to recall vehicles and fix the issue. Volkswagen top level management have gone against the company ethics just to earn market share and profit. A small decision had costed the company its name and money.

References:

Arvinath, Karthick. “VW Scandal: Carmaker Was Warned by Bosch about Test-rigging Software in 2007.” International Business Times RSS. IBI TIMES UK, 2015. Web. 10 Nov. 2016.

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8 thoughts on “Volkswagen Emissions Scandal”

Hi,
First of all, welcome to our blog!
I have a little knowledge about the Volkswagen emissions scandal, but I do see it on the headlines of the newspaper. And your post has introduced the background information about this scandal, very informative! And I have a question about the “small decision” you said in this article, I am not sure what you refer to.

Hello,
I don’t know much about cars and how they actually run. Your second paragraph seems to talk about the ethical dilemma that Volkswagen faced. But, overall, what is it really about? What do you mean “emit up to 40 times more NOx in real-world driving”? I think you should clarify the second paragraph and provide a statement in your own words that explains what the situation is.

Dear Alyssa,
Thank you for the comment. The emissions standard requires that nitrogen oxide emissions not exceed 0.043 grams per kilometre (0.07 g/mi), while Volkswagen diesel cars were emitting around 2.8 Kgs/ mile. I should have explained the emissions standards in detail so that it would give clear idea

Hello,
It is kind difficult for me to understand some of the scientific facts you have listed because I did not have much background knowledge about automobiles. You have gathered many information from different source, what is your position on this issue? Try to come out with some of your own words.

Hello Yuchun,
Thank you for the comment. In my blog regarding emission scandal, I wanted to explain how Volkswagen unethically decided to manipulate engine software to give false outputs instead of fixing the issue. The unethical decision of altering the software was because if Volkswagen chose to rectify the cars, it would cost them billions to recall the cars and make adjustments.

Hello, welcome to our blog~
Actually, you choose the similar topic as me. Our cases are both about the car emission issue. I wonder what differences are between the Germany and Japanese policies and other factors that affect the management situation in companies.

Hello Poppy
Thank you for the comment. Since Germany is part of European Union (EU), They us Euro 6 emission standards while japan uses its own standards based on Air Pollution Control Act of 1968. Euro 6 has the NOx limit of 0.080 grams/km while Japanese emission state a passenger car with expected life 8 years should emit NOx ≤ 2500 kg. Being the automotive industries an MNC, all companies follow similar hierarchy of management.